The right to housing is linked to other critical social and economic rights and issues, including habitat and employment, said Habitat International Coalition President Lorena Zarate in a community forum at the Wellesley Institute on Feb. 14, 2013. This group of groups has been bundled together into a new collective right called the ‘right to the city’. In her presentation, Zarate told how she and her colleagues worked to realize the implementation of the right to the city in the adoption of the Charter on the Right to the City in Mexico City. Zarate reported that impressive work is happening in Brazil where new governmental structures at the national and local level are helping to realize housing and related rights in a practical and effective way. The right to the city is complex and dynamic, noted Zarate, and should be based on a foundation that is sustainable, democratic, equitable and socially just.
Lorena Zarate’s presentation here.
The Wellesley Institute’s recent report to the United Nations on Canada’s compliance with its international housing rights obligations.
The Wellesley Institute’s ‘Making the Connections’ work draws on a complex understanding of the interconnections between a number of issues.